5 Social Media Resolutions for 2019

The new year is just around the corner! We all know the drill—a blank calendar, a fresh start, and a list of lifestyle changes and goals. When it comes to your business plan heading into the next 365 days, crafting a social media strategy built around achievable goals, the newest trends, and changes in the market is essential to ensure your brand stays ahead of the curve all year long. Here are 5 resolutions that should be central to your business’s 2019 social media plan.

1. Go Live

One of the most notable social media trends in the upcoming year is the shift towards live, natural-feeling video as opposed to scripted, planned content. Although videos are definitely still at the top of the pack when it comes to content that generates high levels of engagement, consumers are now looking for video content that feels authentic rather than posed and prepared. 2019 is all about visuals and in order to continue being heard by your audience it is smart to devote extra attention on your video content specifically. Live video provides a simple way to interact and engage directly with your audience, strengthening the relationship between your brand and your followers. Since the number of platforms and devices that support videos, specifically live videos, are only increasing, your business should not overlook creating a specific video strategy. Use live video to answer FAQs, talk directly with your followers, and address their concerns or interest points as they come up. With social TV, like IGTV, you can co-create content alongside your followers, generating content that is authentic and meaningful.

2. Build Brand Trust

After a 2018 marked by several large breaches in security, including from Facebook, numbers provided by Hootsuite show that as many as 60% of people no longer trust social media companies. Now, consumers rely heavily on immediate friends and family, as well as reliable journalistic outlets, to determine which brands to place their trust in. This should affect how businesses tailor their social media strategy—businesses will need to take extra effort to regain consumer trust of their brand. To increase your brand’s trust, it will be important in the coming year to focus less on maximizing reach and instead seek to generate transparent, quality content that is both insightful and backed by research. In other words, 2019 will be all about valuing quality over quantity. Additionally, you can create a branded hashtag that is unique to your business and used across your social media presence. Make yourself available to your followers by performing monthly Q & A sessions (again, live video!) and using AI applications to respond quickly to consumers (chat functions on your website, messenger apps, etc.). Lastly, have an employee advocate or two who can speak directly to your followers to address their concerns and give your social media a genuine, human element.

3. Utilize Stories

Experts expect stories and other forms of short-lived content to gain even more traction in 2019. With stories, you can show your followers behind-the-scenes content and allow them a closer look into your company and what you stand for. Plus, stories are designed specifically for mobile devices rather than desktop, allowing for quick, in-the-moment user experiences. Short-lived content such as this will be highly trending in the new year as such content creates a sense of investment for your audience—take advantage of the fear of missing out and make users feel like if they don’t act now, they may miss the opportunity to interact with your content. This year, create story-specific content that is separate from your regular feed’s content. Get creative and don’t forget to use Instagram’s highlight feature! Facebook stories will be just as important as Instagram stories—Facebook is investing a lot in this platform, and execs are predicting Facebook stories will become even more popular than regular feed posts, in terms of engagement. Although they are not widely-used by businesses at the moment, it will never hurt to utilize them and get in the game early!

4. Align Your Goals

Oftentimes, social media plans and business goals are kept separate. However, as you evaluate your online marketing plan for 2019, take time to align your company’s overall yearly goals, values, and motivations with your plan for your business’s social media presence. Think: how can your social media revolutionize your whole business? Your social media can help your business achieve its business goals in a meaningful way—it’s more than just getting your name out there or jumping on the social media bandwagon. Start by looking at your company’s top-level goals. Then, think of a “next step” you can take within your social media that might help propel your business towards meeting that goal. For example, are you trying to expand into a new market this year? Shift your content to target these consumers and collaborate with influencers within that market. Are you trying to build a community? Create more personal content, tailor it to your target consumers, and interact directly with your followers. Break down your larger goals into simple tactics that are easy to tackle one at a time. Don’t forget to prioritize, determining what should be completed first based on how much time and effort will go into each task, which tasks are the most complex, as well as which tasks will offer the most potential benefit to your business. Also remember that any plan you make should be flexible, as you will need to adapt along the way based on the results you’re seeing.

5. Get Personal

A pattern across all of these tips, 2019 will be focused on personalization of the consumer experience. Consumers want to see the human side of your business and are interested in getting a better one-on-one social experience in the upcoming year. To do this, ensure your responses to messages are quick and personal. Enable Facebook messenger, use chat functions, open your DMs, or look to other messaging apps to streamline any customer service inquires that may come through your social media or website. Also along the lines of building more personal-feeling content, aside from visual and live video content, shorter pieces are also key. It’s okay to post longer pieces as well, but it’s important to include a smaller, more digestible piece along with it. For example, take how we posted this blog followed by sharing an infographic the following day that reduces these 1,000 words into a short, visual format. Aside from appealing to shrinking attention spans, smaller pieces seem more personalized.

From live video to stories and direct communication with consumers, these 5 resolutions will help you tailor your social platforms to best meet the demands of this year’s consumers. This year, when in doubt, it’s best to be transparent on social media, generating authentic content with a human touch.

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